


Spice Rolls and Surprisingly Not Dull Pilots

by katmarajade



Series: Spicy [1]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, F/M, Food, Shore Leave
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-17
Updated: 2014-03-17
Packaged: 2018-01-16 02:48:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1329067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katmarajade/pseuds/katmarajade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On shore leave, Uhura ends up with a surprise dinner companion.  Turns out, he's not nearly as dull as she's always thought.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spice Rolls and Surprisingly Not Dull Pilots

Uhura becomes hooked on Kahdorian spice rolls after the diplomatic mission banquet on Kahdor V. The food is ridiculously spicy for the human palate and beyond anything a Vulcan could possibly tolerate. Spock has to respectfully decline and return to the ship and Chekov only manages a few bites before his eyes begin watering so badly that he can't even see. Judging from the look on Kirk's face, the Captain only manages to make it through the dinner by sheer will power and, knowing him, a repeated mantra of _you're Captain James "I don't believe in no-win scenarios" Kirk and you can damn well eat this crap and save the galaxy_ , or something similar. Sulu seems as unflappable as ever and calmly eats the meal with the same precision and stoicism that he does everything.

Two months later on shore leave on Risa, Uhura sits down in a tiny, hole-in-the-wall Kahdorian restaurant, mouth practically watering in anticipation. There is simply no way to achieve the perfect blend of rare spices with a replicator and, after two dismal attempts, she'd given up and begun to dream about shore leave possibilities instead. The unfriendly waiter has just thrust a menu at her and stalked off when she notices the restaurant door opening again and a familiar face walking through, looking as calm and perfectly at ease as ever in the foreign environment.

She lifts a hand to signal him before she even realizes it, and he raises one thick eyebrow at seeing her, but gives no other indication of surprise.

"Fancy meeting you here," he says, gesturing to the seat across from her. "Mind some company?"

She waves a hand in invitation, wondering how this will play out. She has never really spent much time with Sulu, though they work very well together on Alpha shift. He spends most of his free time hanging out with Chekov, but he is also good friends with the captain, which makes her a little leery, because, despite her best efforts, she has never been able to like Kirk—though she has at least learned to respect him now.

Uhura spends a great deal of her own free time with Spock, even after their amicable break up, because she loves their verbal sparring and long, stimulating debates and discussions that always take place in a combination of Vulcan, Federation Standard, and several other languages. She spends the rest of her time with Gaila, who drives her completely crazy with her whimsical chatter and silliness but whom she loves dearly.

Their circles of friends are decidedly different and she can't think of a single thing other than the Enterprise that they have in common, but this is just dinner. A casual shore leave meal with a friendly colleague. No sense in ruining an evening that she's been looking forward to for months just because of a surprise dining companion.

"So, you must have loved that dinner on Kahdor V as much as I did. I'm a total convert. Those rolls were amazing," Sulu starts, flashing her that oddly-disarming, lazy-looking smile of his.

"Yes! I tried replicating them, but it was a lost cause," she replies mournfully, earning a laugh. She realizes with a bit of surprise that getting the unerringly calm pilot to laugh so freely gives a girl a strangely satisfied feeling.

"Best take advantage of a Kahdorian restaurant while we've got the opportunity then," says Sulu lightly as the waiter returns and grumpily throws down another menu in front of him and stares at them both with clear disdain, seemingly irritated by Sulu's obviously unaffected good cheer.

Uhura orders them three different varieties of spice rolls and a side of some sort of spiced vegetable mash in barely accented Kahdorian, which causes the waiter to narrow his eyes at her in distrust but retreat without comment.

Talking with Sulu is surprisingly easy, and, to Uhura's amazement, they actually have a lot in common.

Both of them are the oldest child in their families and have younger sisters, who drive them crazy and cause them to be a little overprotective at times.

Despite their outwardly calm demeanors, they both suffer from nasty tempers, but they deal with them similarly with focused, highly-disciplined physical activity. He fences and she does yoga.

They discover that they're both hopeless romantics and that they both secretly watch the same cheesy serial, which is something they have both kept hidden from the crew for fear of being mercilessly mocked. They swear each other to secrecy on that front, solemnly vowing and sealing the promise with frighteningly strong shots of some type of alien liqueur that makes both of them choke.

They complain good-naturedly about their respective best friends, roll their eyes at stories about Chekov's hyperactivity and Gaila's moony-eyed crushes and how everyone on the Enterprise is completely charmed by their big eyes and happy smiles. Both waving their rolls around animatedly and dripping sauce on the table cloth, Uhura and Sulu agree how completely unnerving it is that their friends can switch over from wide-eyed adorableness to mind-blowingly serious genius at lightspeed.

They end up eating their way through almost the entire menu, trying roll after roll, each one spicier than the last. Uhura's lips are on fire and Sulu's eyes are watering slightly, but they're both grinning.  
They pay the exorbitant bill, offer amused smiles to the waiter who is still glaring at them as they near the exit, and walk out into the cool night air, bellies filled to bursting.

"That was amazing," Sulu says, his voice almost a moan.

"Most delicious meal I have had in _ages_ ," Uhura immediately agrees. Sulu gives her a teasing glance and a smirk, adding,

"The company wasn't all that bad either."

Uhura laughs, feeling oddly light despite the massive amounts of food in her stomach. Sulu is remarkably easy to talk to. Despite his association with their illustrious captain, he's not cocky or bull-headed, and he's not nearly as dull as his stoic, fencing-loving, always-calm-and-collected persona would suggest. In fact, he's not dull at all.

She offers him a brilliant smile, the one she knows turns men's knees to jelly. He looks like he's just been punched in the gut and gives her a dizzy grin in return. Without taking time to think about it, she leans over and presses her mouth to his. The kiss is short and chaste and Sulu's mouth is hot and wet and spicy, and it gives her a slow, hot, twisting feeling in her lower belly.

Sulu appears as calm and collected as ever when she pulls away, but she now notices how his smile is a bit wobbly and his eyes are smoldering, and it gives her a heady feeling of accomplishment that she can break through that cool demeanor of his.

"So," Sulu says, his voice deep and laced with faint sheen of amusement that Uhura doesn't know if she would have noticed before tonight, "does this mean you'll have dinner with me sometime? Or do I have to wait until next shore leave when I can bribe you with Kahdorian food again?"

"Well, we'll have to see if we can come up with something more replicator-friendly to tide us over until next time."

Sulu's lazy grin is contagious, and, as they wander back towards the hotel that Starfleet contracts for its crews, Uhura dreamily thinks that Kahdorian spice rolls are the most amazing thing in the galaxy and that shore leave is shaping up to be much better than she could ever have hoped.


End file.
